I played this in beta while on holidays in europe and really wanted to like it, but just couldnt. It took every reason i played POTC and ruined it;
Physics based ship combat with cannonballs that fly through the air and disperse, hitting whatever is in the way, with realistic accuracy and low chance to hit at long range = gone, now weve got MMORPG number crunching with pretend graphics. If i wanted a spreadsheet..
Realistic or at least somewhat realistic ship sailing and tactics with slow speeds (no more than 15kn, mostly 5kn), no sailing into the wind and slow turning = gone, now weve got 'lowest common denominator' superspeed sailing that makes it all a big joke
Sailing between islands in directsail = gone, now a stupid map mode. This was THE single biggest thing i was excited about when reading early POTBS dev blogs about catching the right winds and sailing between islands - it was supposed to have a compressed game world where you had to sail in directsail. I would have accepted every other flaw on this list if this revolutionary feature had made it in. Even speedy gonzales ships. It would have been the most emergent portrayal of age of sail tactics to have ships and players plot courses on the sail map and engage as the situation dictates
Semi RPG mainly realistic approach to gunnery and character skills, with fairly rapid progression in character skills - however, ships are unrestricted and depend on what you can capture, and officers can help you = gone, stupid MMORPG grind fest crap instead where it takes decades of killing useless crap to be anywhere near half decent, you cannot get any help or hire any officers to help you and you cannot keep ships you board and must follow a VERY grindy and VERY unrealistic ship ladder, buying only once you reach the right level.
All in all i just felt that everything that made this kind of game good was the realism mixed with a bit of suspension of belief and happy go lucky approach - eg big ship captures - NOT grinding. And all that disappeared when POTBS decided it needed to be more like every other MMORPG.
Everyone always says that these kinds of games need to be lowest common denominator to suit the masses, but i just think thats not true. Simulators can attract large numbers; look at ms flight sim which most pc players have played. Test Drive Unlimited 1 had a hardcore mode that was very popular with players and TDU2 got criticized for removing it and making the driving more arcade. There is a large group of players out there who DO want realism in their games, but just want it tempered with a good story and gameplay. I am a big fan of race sims like Grand Prix Legends and GTR, but youre only ever on a track racing. Many people, like me, want a simulator with the heart of a game - Test Drive Unlimited 1, with hardcore mode, is a prime example of the kind of game that develops when you merge open world with realistic physics but gamey story. POTBS looked like it was heading in that direction, then it shifted course.